Announcing God Assuming Human Nature

Today we celebrate the Annunciation of the Lord. Two thousand plus years ago, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, announcing to her that she had found favor with God and was to become pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. The child that would begin to grow in her womb would be God Himself assuming human nature through her and coming to live among us as a human being. This child, the Incarnate Son of God, would be like us in all things but sin.

The opening antiphon of today's liturgy tells us that, as the Lord entered the world, he said: "Behold, I come to do your will, O God."   In today's responsorial psalm, Psalm  40,  the Lord says: "Sacrifice or oblation you wished not, but ears open to obedience you gave me. Holocausts  or sin-offering you sought not; then said I, 'Behold I come. In the written scroll it is prescribed of me, to do your will, O my God, is my delight, and your law is within my heart.'"

Obedience to the will of God is modeled for Jesus by His mother, who when the angel Gabriel announced God's will for her replied: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." At that moment, as the angel proclaimed, the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and Jesus was conceived in her womb!  Mary would never be the same and neither would the history of the world.

Emmanual--God-with-us!  As Jesus lived in Mary's womb physically, He lives within our bodies spiritually.  In the Holy Eucharist, Jesus comes to nourish us, strengthen us, purify us, as well:  "Take and eat," Jesus says to us through the priest, "this is my body given up for you." "Take and drink [of the chalice]; this is my blood poured out for you."

Jesus lives in you and me as He lived in Mary. He is there always--when we get up in the morning, when we go to work, when we retire for the night!  Jesus never leaves us, never abandons us, and always waits for us to seek His help, to call upon Him in need, and to rely upon Him in all of the circumstances of our lives, especially those that seem overwhelming for us, that leave us with a trillion questions, that baffle, confuse or frustrate us. Jesus also wants us to include Him, look to Him in the joyful, celebratory, exciting moments of our lives.

May we turn to Him and seek Him every moment of every day and night!

Be It Done unto Me according to Your Will, O God

Today we celebrate the feast of the Annunciation, the angel announces to Mary that she has been chosen by God to be the mother of the Son of God, sent  into the world, not to condemn it but to save it. Her womb will be opened by the Holy Spirit and will receive the Son of God, who will take on our humanity.  Mary, hearing of God’s plan, says:  “Behold the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your  word.”  What do you and I say when “an angel of the Lord” announces God’s plan for us? Are we willing, as Mary was, to have it done to us according to God’s word, or, like Adam and Eve, do we follow our own will and set God’s aside?

Only by God’s intervention would humankind be saved from eternal darkness, from separation from God that was caused by our disobedience. Jesus’  obedience and Mary’s’ would change that for us.  Paul says to us in Hebrews 10: 1-10, the second reading of today’s Mass, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats takes away sins. For this reason, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me” in Mary’s womb. “[I]n holocaust and sin offerings you took no delight. Then I said, ‘As is written of me in the scroll, behold, I come to do your will, O God.”  Paul continues:  “By this ‘will,’ we have been consecrated [made holy, made whole, sanctified] through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all.”  Nothing you and I do makes us right with God. Only Jesus can do that and He did by  being obedient to the Father unto death.

How obedient am I to God? Whose will am I following? God’s? or my own?  Do I want to know? If so, I need to sit at the feet of Jesus in solitude and let the Spirit open my mind to the will of God for me.

The Announcement of God's Plan

Today we celebrate the Annuciation.  The Trinity begins their plan to give birth to the New Covenant, the covenant of God loving us to the point of, not only the Second Person of the Trinity taking on our humanity but also assuming all of the conditions of our humanness, except sin itself. He comes out of love for us, wants to show us the way to the Father, the way of humility, obedience and love beyond all telling.   Jesus becomes the New Israel who, unlike the Israelites who repeatedly mistrusted  God and created their own gods,  trusts the Father to the point of His passion and death and rising the third day.  This plan, for fulfillment, needed a woman who, unlike Eve,  would say “yes” to God, would trust God.  Thus, the Trinity sent Gabriel to Mary to ask her to take on this assignment, so to speak.  She is terrified at the angel’s words.
Imagine being Mary, a girl of 14 or 15 years of age, just betrothed to Joseph, who is to become her husband. “I will become pregnant?  I’m not married. I don’t know a man in that way. How can this possibly be?” Truly, she is confused, scared, taken aback! “Conceive a child out of wedlock?” she might have thought. “Joseph certainly will divorce me. I will be alone.  I could possibly be stoned to death.  With some luck, maybe not killed but left to myself,  facing the prospect of living in dire poverty, an outcast of my culture.”

The angel calms her. “Mary, you have found favor with God. Be not afraid….The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.  Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.  …[Your] cousin Elizabeth,…has also conceived a son in her old age [she’s ninety], and this is the sixth month for her who was…[known and looked down upon for being] barren; for nothing is impossible for God”  (Luke 1: 26-38).

Full of grace, Mary says “yes ”:  “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1: 28).

Lord, may I have the faith, the humility, the courage and the trust of Mary to say “yes” to you today, no matter how impossible what you are asking of me may sound or how scary that my “yes” might lead to suffering of some sort.  Filled with grace, may I trust you as Mary did and also as Jesus did in leaving heaven and coming to earth to take on human nature and all that being human entails, apart from sin itself. May I leave my comfy zone to follow God’s plans for me today!

God's Visit

Today's Gospel tells the story of the Annunciation, when the angel of the Lord announces to Mary that she has found favor with the Lord and will conceive a child in her womb who will be called holy, the Son of the Most High God. He will assume the throne of David and rule over all and  His Kingdom will have no end, totally unlike any earthly kingdom. 

Imagine this happening to you. You are engaged to be married. You and your fiancee have not engaged in sex. Both of you believe that that is a sacred gift reserved for marriage, for persons in a committed relationship to one another and to God.  Suddenly, in the quiet of your room, no one is around but you,  a heavenly messenger appears to you and says:

"Hail, full of grace. The Lord is with you."

You're thinking: "Oh, my God! Who is this? What is this all about?"  You begin to tremble with fear. "Am I hallucinating? What is happening to me? Oh, God help!"  The angel notices that you are terrified and says: "Don't be afraid. You have found favor with the Lord. I have great news for you. You will conceive a child in your womb, a son, whom you will name Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High God.  He is going to ascend the throne of the greatest rulers whoever governed any nation on this earth.  In fact, He will rule forever with justice and right judgment and His Kingdom will never end."

"What? How is this going to happen? I'm a virgin. My fiancee is a virgin.  I have never had a sexual relationship with anyone."

"Don't worry! Nothing is impossible with God."

"I know! But how am I to conceive a child without having a sexual encounter with a man?"

"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God....for nothing will be impossible for God."

Recognizing the truth of all of this and that you belong to God above anyone self,  you respond: "Be it done to me according to your word."

As with Mary, so, too, with you, God breaks into your life in profound ways, sometimes frightening ways.  On the day of your baptism, confirmation, first confession, first Holy Communion, and Confirmation and any sacrament received since you died and rose with Christ in your baptism, something profound, something holy is happening.   As with Mary in the Annunciation, you are completely changed by God visiting you, not through a messenger, but directly through the sacraments.  As you cooperate with grace, as Mary did, you will never be the same. God has broken into the ordinariness of your life and made it extraordinary. By God's grace you give birth to Jesus whenever you do the good God calls you to do, whenever you fulfill your mission on earth just as Mary did; namely bringing Christ to every encounter and to every event of your life.